'Finish them': Nikki Haley signs Israeli artillery shell intended for Gaza

Nikki Haley, former United States Republican presidential candidate, visited Israel's northern border with Lebanon on Tuesday and the site of the October 7 Hamas attack.

While visiting the border, the 52-year-old former US ambassador to the United Nations, wrote a "disgusting" message on an Israeli artillery shell intended to be dropped on Gaza.

She signed her name under a message reading: "Finish them. America loves Israel always."

Haley's visit was organised by a right-wing member of the Israeli Parliament, Danny Danon.

"This is what my friend, the former [UN] ambassador, Nikki Haley wrote today on a shell during a visit to an artillery post on the northern border," Danon wrote on X.

In her own post, Haley said that the missile she signed was intended for Hamas but the photos and message drew fury on social media.

"Just disgusting," Alon-Lee Green, founder of Standing Together, a left-wing Israeli group, wrote on X.

Her visit followed the brutal Israeli air strikes on a camp for displaced Palestinians in Rafah over the weekend, which killed about 45 people most of whom were women and children.

The attack prompted a global outcry with people including influencers, politicians and celebrities calling on Israel to immediately halt operations in the area.

US officials called the images coming out of Rafah "horrific" and "heartbreaking", but fell short of condemning Israel's operations despite growing pressure on US President Joe Biden to rein in Israel's operations in Gaza.

Over 36,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli strikes since October 7, when 1,200 people were killed in Hamas's attack on Israel.